My wife and I have been married for 41 years. She is the wife of my youth and we have raised four beautiful girls.  Several months ago, she was at the bottom of the stairs, having been alarmed by the noise outside, she tried to step back up the stairs to get a better look out of the window beside the front door. She took a misstep and fell down the remaining stairs.  She had been going to a chiropractor and made an appointment. After a few visits, her pain, which was considerable, was not diminishing. The Chiropractor advised her to get an MRI. We hesitated initially because we understood that Medicare, our only form of insurance, would not cover it and we could not afford it out of pocket.  However, after inquiring we got approval, but we had to find a GP who would prescribe it,  and once we did, he ordered it. On the day of the test, the hospital called and told us to contact Arlana's physician right away.  As it turned out, he called us that afternoon and told us that Arlana had all of the signs of cancer and he was scheduling appointments to be examined further.  As it turned out, the MRI revealed shadows in her Femurs and Hips.  They determined that it was cancer. Upon further investigation, it was revealed that she has Stage 4 Breast Cancer and that this was the contributor that caused it to spread into her bones.  The number of tumors was too numerous to count.  Unfortunately, none of this is operable.  She was scheduled for radiation treatment and hormonal therapy with the hope that it would slow it down but the conclusion is a prognosis of one to four years. We are waiting for the evaluation of the radiation treatment performed but we have to wait for about two months to discern the progress if any.  My wife has lost a significant amount of weight and it is frightening to see.  She is in constant pain and is very weak.  The question is not if it will take her life, it is when it will claim her life.  My desire is to keep her as comfortable as possible.  While it appears that the state of Oregon will assist us with expenses, they will not cover it all. We are both receiving Social Security benefits but it barely covers our expenses.  Our available cash after rent and bills leaves us at about $400 for food and gas plus whatever other needs arise. I have retired from secular work because I cannot get another job due to my own medical condition. I have PHN or Post Herpatic Neuropathy, which is a disease that attacks the nerves. Having had several bouts with shingles, my nerves are damaged to the point of living in significant pain every day and therefore am not able to hold down a job any longer.  Because of a lack of insurance and only having Medicare, which will not cover this sort of illness, I cannot seek out proper medical care unless it is out of pocket.  Because of this, we got behind on a number of bills. Some of these have gone into default and our credit has tanked as a result. Adding to all of this, we are now faced with eviction because our landlord is selling the unit we live in now. We have until 10/31/19 to move but have no real prospects at this point.  Because of our limited funds from Social Security, and our poor credit rating, we will likely be homeless unless we can come up with a solution.  We applied to rent a unit near to us but were declined due to insufficient income and poor credit.  We have spent the majority of our lives in volunteer work, trying to help others, so we are not well to do financially and have no assets that can be liquidated. While Life has been manageable up to this point, we are now facing the brink of complete financial collapse. We are not welfare minded and have done our best to maintain a humble lifestyle, and not relying on others to care for us, so this is particularly hard on us.  We would appreciate any help that anyone can offer.  We feel that if we can just overcome this major huddle, and could have the expenses relieved, we could carry on for the remainder of the time left.  Thank you so much for considering this matter. 

PS  As of November 2019, we were able to secure a new dwelling. In a large part this was possible due to the kind and generous gifts from people like you. Our spirits were lifted greatly. Unfortunately, the joy was overshadowed by a bizarre chain of events later in the month.  Please read the next post...